Today I spoke at a combined meeting of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau. My talk was on Building Brand Value and how to use branding to sell tourism in tough times.
I brought along a few of my latest book, but certainly not enough for the group that came up after my talk to ask questions and buy a copy for themselves.
As I was bending down to fetch more copies out of my briefcase, it dawned on me that even though the people were paying for a copy of my book, what they were actually buying was a little bit of me. Not in the metaphorical sense that the book represented my thinking, hard work and writing ability (or lack thereof). Rather, buying the book was the audiences' way of getting a souvenir of the afternoon and of making the experience tangible.
Two things this experience taught me: 1) that people don't buy what you sell, they buy who you are, which reinforces the intelligence of using various social media outreach to build relationships with your customers and potential customers and 2) to bring more books the next time I speak.
How can you use this idea to sell more of whatever it is you want to sell?